It was Montreal, Saturday night and one of the original six was in town. There was only one thing to do; spend an exorbitant amount of money on seats in the nose bleeds and head for Centre Bell. They call it La Ville au Hockey and for good reason. Everyone in the city seemed to be on their way to the game or at least a pub to watch it. It was then I realized that I had forgotten to pack the thing that should have been first in my suit case, my Hab's jersey.
We arrived an hour and a half before game time and already the stadium was full of people. I stopped in at the crowded shop and waited my turn to pick out a jersey. There was no way I was going to watch my first Hab's game actually in Montreal and not be wearing team colours. After all, before #99 and Lanny and the Battle of Alberta the Dubois of Red Deer did not spend their Saturday nights watching the Leafs play.
Since I already had a game jersey, one of the style that would have been worn in the days of Lafleur, it made sense to get a jersey of a slightly different variation. Given my love of history, and having no use for the new Reebok jerseys I opted for a lovely hockey sweater fit to sport a felt #9 on the back. I was right at the shop so there was no chance of Mr. Eaton accidentally sending me a blue sweater.
In spite of being about as high up as you can get at Centre Bell, the seats were still good. I suppose it's the benefit to being in a modern stadium. Plus, the press box obscured the view of 24 Stanley Cup banners from Evil Scientist's view. Poor guy, it's not easy being a Leaf's fan. Worse yet, later in the evening the jumbotron reported that the Leaf's were losing to the Senators, of all teams. They did manage to win in the end.
I got to listen to the ref and linesmen being sworn at in both official languages. The game was good, staying tied at 2-2 until the last. I had to endure a shoot-out, one of the Americanizations of the game in recent years that has irritated me about the NHL. In the end though, Montreal won and we walked back to our hotel amongst other celebrating fans and mopy Bruins people.
See the Hab's play in Montreal. Another mark on my lifetime check list.